The Steel Guitar Forum

I was contacted by someone who just bought a Lil Buddy pedal steel with 3 and 1. He asked if I could help him set it up -- it has the Day set-up and he wants to go to the Emmons set-up. I don't know anything about these steels. Who were they made by? Are they easy to change the set-up? I would appreciate any input you can give me. Thanks in advance. Boo

Hi there Boo,
They were/are made in Hamtramick (spelling?) west side of Detroit and are a student model quite easy to work on.
I was just searching for the little book I had years ago that got a guy started into pedal steel - no luck. They had quite a little thing going for them at the time as they had other guitars there to trade up to.
If you do a search back, there was a thread going on about them about 2 years ago??

Bob Mainwaring.Z.Bs. and other weird things.

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Boo,

These guitars were built by Chuck Thompson and Freeman Cowgar in the 1970's and early 1980's. A number of them were also built at their shop at Hillman MI (in the northeast lower peninsula about 200 miles north of Hamtramck!). The company name was USA Guitar Co. Well anyway there was a parting of the ways so Little Buddy production eventually halted, but Freeman Cowgar now builds the Cougar steel guitars at his shop in Fairview MI. If you want to talk to the man who knows Little Buddy steel guitars inside and out, give Freeman a call at (989)848-5380. He will be happy to talk with you and can help you with the setup. Or you can log on to the Cougar website, I don't know the address offhand but you can find it through your search engine or a link from this forum. And yes, Freeman still has one or two spare copies of the little E9th instruction book that Bob spoke of. It was just about the first book of its kind ever published, MSA also used to offer the same book. But Freeman Cowgar was the author.

A couple of good things about the Little Buddy guitars are that they have very little cabinet drop and their pickups are plenty loud enough to work good with a small amp. The early Little Buddy was in the same category as the Sho-Bud Maverick, the later ones more like the Cougar King but did not have a universal all-pull changer at that time. Every Little Buddy steel that I ever saw had the Emmons setup, so you can bet that somebody changed this one to Day and it shouldn't be very difficult to change it back. If any parts are needed (highly unlikely) Freeman's either got 'em or can make 'em quickly.

Hope this is helpful to you. Give Freeman a call tomorrow.

Tim R.

Thanks for the help -- as always, I can count on this forum to help out! Boo

Cool, I learn something new everyday.
LONG LIVE THE FORUM.